Sports which involve physical contact, such as football, hockey or lacrosse, commonly require helmets and mouth guards or teeth protectors. Athletes who wear orthodontic appliances, such as braces, face an extra hurdle in fitting the mouth guards around their orthodontic appliance.
Mouth guards and orthodontic appliance shields have been devised for protecting orthodontic appliances during such contact sports as well as protecting the inner surfaces of the athletes' lips and cheeks from injury. The use of such shields is becoming more important due to athletic event rules which require a person having a bleeding cut to be removed from the athletic contest until the bleeding stops.
Orthodontic appliance shields formed of pliable wax and plastic have been devised; but are cumbersome in fitting over the orthodontic appliance each time they are to be used. More rigid orthodontic appliance guards overcome this problem, but create additional problems relating to breathing difficulties and a higher cost.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an orthodontic appliance shield which addresses the above mentioned problems; while at the same time providing an easy to apply and easy to remove one time use.